Energy, environmental and mechanical engineering students from VAMK and energy technology students from University College of Northern Denmark (UCN) participated in the International Workshop “Waste to Energy” at VAMK from the 8th to the 22nd January, 2018.

Students were from 15 different countries, and the objective of the workshop was to study various waste to energy technologies and biogas.

- Students were organized into multidisciplinary teams, and each team acted as international project consultants. They were required to plan and implement waste to energy projects in a real life project setting, tells lecturer Adebayo Agbejule who was organizing the workshop.

Some of the questions student were required to answer included what was energy content of the waste found in target countries, the type of technologies that should be adopted and what kind of environmental impact assessment should be performed.

One excursion was made to Mirka factory in Jepua.

Jeppo Biogas plant was a very interesting place and useful for the course project.

CEO K. Stenvall explained the feeding system of the biogas plant.

During the workshop, the students from VAMK were introduced to the problem based learning pedagogy (PBL). PBL provides the students with tools to work for independent acquisition of knowledge and skills.

- The group work included aspects such as knowledge sharing, group decision making and critical feedback from students and lecturers, says Agbejule.

The workshop included field trips to Jeppo Biogas, Stormossen, West energy and Mirka. The objective of the field trips was to introduce students to, and study waste to energy plants in action.

The main instructors and organizers of the workshop were VAMK`s lecturers Adebayo Agbejule and Riitta Niemelä and HOD Lotta Saarikoski and four visiting lecturers from UCN.